Agency vs Private Aides

If your elderly loved one needs help, you should review your options. Deciding what kind of home health care help you need is the first step. If you’ve decided to hire a home health aide, you should start thinking about the hiring process. But, there is still one important decision that you have to make before you hire a home health aide. You should decide if you will hire from a home health care agency, or if you will hire an independent, private aide. Both of these options have their pros and cons that you should consider before making a decision. Here, I will discuss some of the common factors that go into making this decision.

Experience and Qualifications

Sometimes, aides hired by home health care agencies have more training than private aides. Of course, this is not always the case, but it is a good rule of thumb to consider as you move forward with your decision. A home health care agency will screen home health aides before hiring them. This means that the home health aide will have to meet the agency’s standards to work for the agency. Private home health care aides may be uncertified. They might not have a lot of experience and qualifications. You will have to interview an individual home health aide to find out.

Cost

Many times, you will have to pay more for a home health aide if you are going through a home health care agency. This is because the agency itself will charge a premium for its services. An individual home health aide – particularly an uncertified one – may be cheaper. But, it is important to make sure that an individual aide is an independent contractor. This will ensure that there are no tax issues down the line. This way you don’t have to pay for payroll taxes, unemployment, and more, as a private employer.

Supervision

Some people like knowing that when they use a home health care agency, the agency evaluates the aide. Proper supervision can quickly solve issues and prevent neglect and abuse. If you would like a licensed agency to supervise your home health aide, use one when hiring an aide. But, if you want to handle supervision on your own, hiring an individual aide will work for you.

Control

Before hiring a private aide, you can create your own hiring process and criteria. You can also make sure that the aide or aides get along well with your loved one before hiring them. But, if you hire a home health care agency, it will assign aides to your loved one. Some of these aides might not get along well with your loved one. While agencies try to place aides where their strengths are needed, this is not always the case. Also, the agency might send an unknown aide to cover another aide’s shift, which could lead to issues. If you are interested in maintaining control of this process, finding an individual aide might be right for you.

These are just a few factors to consider before deciding to hire an aide. This section of the website will provide more information on the home health aide.